When it comes to video games, one fact is indisputable: They are more popular than ever. About 43% of U.S. adults often or sometimes play video games, according to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, with 72% of men and 49% of women reporting that they play them on a game console, computer, TV or portable device, including cellphones.
What is less agreed upon is whether video games are an overall benefit or hindrance to players and society. While games have been praised for their ability to boost learning, social interaction and physical health, they have also been questioned as possible causes for aggression or violence.
Players compete in a basketball video game at an international trade show in Paris in October 2018. Video games are popular pastimes for both adults and youth in the U.S., though the pros and cons of their use are often topics of debate.
Photo by Chesnot, courtesy Getty Images
The debate over the pros and cons of video games has been going on for almost as long as the games have existed. But since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which one of the killers had a history of playing a shooting video game, discussions on the connection between video games and violence have become more frequent.
“Columbine solidified in the minds of many that there was a definitive link between violence and video games,” Chris Ferguson, PhD, a media researcher at Stetson University who studies video games, told The Nation’s Health.
Many Americans continue to believe that video games cause gun violence, with the issue raised again after recent U.S. mass shootings. The 2017 Pew study found that 65% of adults believed video games contribute a great deal or a fair amount to gun violence. The belief was even higher among people 65 and older, with 82% of seniors making the connection.
But what people think does not always line up with what science finds. A recent study by University of Oxford researchers sampled over 1,000 teens and their parents and caregivers, measuring youth aggressiveness based on which games youth played and for how long. Published in Royal Society Open Science in February, the study concluded that playing violent video games does not have a measurable effect on aggressive behavior in real-life.
“Despite interest in the topic by parents and policymakers, the research has not demonstrated that there is cause for concern,” study lead researcher Andrew Przybylski, PhD, director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute, said in a news release.
Harvard University researchers recently examined three meta-analyses that make conflicting claims of video game and aggression research. Their resulting study, published in June in Perspectives on Psychological Science, found that while conclusions from researchers may vary, the available data are essentially in agreement — video games may be associated with a small but potentially negligible increase in aggressive behavior. But research on video games, as a whole, says almost nothing on video games and mass violence, according to Maya Mathur, PhD, co-author of the analysis.
In 2013, Imogen Hansen and her sister Abby Hansen dance to the videogame “Just Dance 4” at their home in Toronto. Some games that require motion by users provide more intense exercise than unstructured outdoor play, a study shows.
Photo by Ty Wright, courtesy The Washington Post/Getty Images
Beyond aggression, there are also growing concerns about video game addiction. The problem is widespread enough that the World Health Organization included internet gaming disorder in its 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, which goes into effect in January 2022. WHO describes the disorder as impaired control over gaming, prioritizing gaming over other interests and continuing to play games despite negative consequences.
While the new classification may help clinicians identify people with gaming disorders, Ferguson said they will need to look further to identify causes.
“Usually, the drive to excessive gaming comes from something outside of games, not the game itself,” he said.
Positive effects from video games have also been documented by science. Some games that require motion by users provide more intense exercise than unstructured outdoor play, according to a 2015 study in Games for Health Journal that tracked players with accelerometers. Sports video games such as bowling and golf call for users to emulate moves of real players, and dance games require users to perform vigorous activity.
Video games can also provide meaningful activity for people with disabilities, according to AbleGamers, a nonprofit organization that provides specialized gaming equipment.
In a survey of video game players with disabilities, the group found that users said they played for fun, but also to combat stress and depression and to engage in physical therapy for their hands. A third of respondents said that video games helped with pain management.
“If you enjoy video games, they’re effective at reducing stress,” Ferguson said.
Other studies on video games have studied cognitive effects. For example, two meta-analyses published in Psychological Bulletin in 2017 by an international team of researchers, with over 250 references spanning a 15-year period, concluded that games can improve cognitive abilities of players. They found that video game players scored higher in tests of attention, perception, cognitive flexibility and spatial cognition.
While violent video games get a lot of attention, a Pew survey found that strategy and puzzle games are the most popular types, with 62% of adult players using them, followed by adventure, shooting and role-playing games.
A majority of children and teens are gaming as well. Eighty percent of children ages 2 to 10 play video games, averaging 14 hours a week, according to an August report from EEDAR. While the idea of young children playing games for hours may raise concerns, Peter Gray, PhD, a research professor at Boston College, praises the unstructured play time that video games offer.
“Our children would be much worse off without games,” Gray said.
But time limits are needed on video playtime. A 2014 study in Pediatrics found that an hour of video game play per day is ideal for children. However, benefits disappear if game time extends to three hours or more.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warns against exposing children to virtual violence, and recommends that parents and children play video games together to encourage social interaction, learning and bonding.
Researchers have also explored the mental health effects of video games. A July study in JAMA Pediatrics that followed teens over the course of four years found that video games were not linked to depression. Social media use and increased television use, on the other hand, were associated with symptoms of depression.
Gaming, social media and television should not be bundled together in discussions on depressive moods, Gray said.
“We talk about screen time as if it were all one thing — and that’s just plain wrong.”
For more information on video games, visit www.pewsocialtrends.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
